What is Jati?
How sanskrit is disrespected in modern Indic civilizational discourse
Jati is a politically supercharged word when it comes to Indian political drama and is a highly sensitive topic if poked enough in your daily conversations in modern Indian society. But we often forget that words, as is quite evident from world linguistic history, take on their own meaning with the passage of time. This article talks about one such peculiar and sorry instance of a genius word falling from grace due to various reasons; from the racist and devisive ideologies of British Colonialism to self-gratifying political vultures of modern India.
Jati is an expansive word
The meaning of the word Jati, contrary to the current understanding, is deeply taxonomic.
Jati1 is commonly understood as someone’s caste among the four: Brahimn, Kshatriya, Vaishya, Shudra or someone’s sub-caste like Dailt, Bahujan, Marwari etc. It’s truly heartbreaking to see the abject misfortune which has fallen on the most sophisticated language of #Sanskrit .
Adding
So what does Jati mean?
Jati simply means the form a being takes at birth2. Thats it. No castes are conjured and no heirarchies are maintained. The definition subtly hints at the ingenius taxonomy Hindus employ to categorize their surrounding universe. So lets look at the defintion with more focussed and appreciative reasoning.